As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, a U.S. Air Force Bombardier E-11A jet was either shot down or crashed in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said two American Air Force pilots were the only ones on the plane. The Pentagon said the crash was caused by a mechanical failure.
Both the Taliban and Iranian news sources claim the military jet was shot down in retaliation for the assassination of General Soleimani.
U.S. military personnel destroyed the remnants of the plane.
Furthermore, Russian and Iranian sources claim there were several top CIA officials on board, and one of the Americans killed in the crash was Michael D’Andrea, head of the agency’s Iran Mission Center. The White House and CIA have neither confirmed nor denied that D’Andrea is still alive.
“Dark Prince” & “Undertaker”
Mr. D’Andrea is credited with the direction of launching American military drone campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and, most recently, Iraq.
Within the CIA, D’Andrea was/is known as the “Dark Prince” and “Ayatollah Mike.” One former U.S. intelligence official said, “People were scared of him. He was the undertaker.”
Under D’Andrea’s command, in 2010, as part of President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism strategy, the CIA launched over a hundred drone strikes in Pakistan, which killed innocent civilians.
D’Andrea was also recognized as a significant figure in the CIA’s controversial detention and interrogation program that the U.S. Senate condemned in 2014 for its extensive use of torture.
As we have reported, in June of 2017, Michael D’Andrea became involved in President Trump’s strategy to directly confront Iran. At that time, he was appointed as the head of the CIA’s Iran Operations that indicated the Trump administration’s aggressive military strategy against Iran.
Robert Baer, a former CIA officer, stated at that time that given D’Andrea’s reputation, “All I can say is that war with Iran is in the cards.”
It was also under D’Andrea’s influence that the CIA began using drone attacks in Yemen to support the Saudi military invasion launched in 2015.
Yemen War, Mass Murder
With or without D’Andrea, the U.S. has increased its presence and participation in the Saudi-led Yemen War.
Last Friday, President Trump confirmed a U.S.-launched drone strike killed Qasim al-Raymi, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Trump said al-Raymi, “committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces.”
It is estimated that over 100,000 Yemenis have been killed, millions have been displaced, and 80 percent of Yemenis have become malnourished from the famine caused by the ongoing war.
The U.S. has sold the Saudis hundreds of billions of dollars in military hardware and provides intelligence and logistical assistance.
TRENDPOST: The five-year Yemeni War is barely reported in the mainstream media and the vast majority knows nothing about it.
Among the Democratic contestants in the 2020 Presidential Reality Show,® the massacre of innocent people; the bombing into rubble of the poorest nation in the Middle East; and the suffering inflicted by the Saudi’s, their Arab League allies, and nations such as the U.S., which supplies the vast majority of the weapons of mass killing, the Yemeni War is rarely mentioned and the call for action to stop it is silent.
